[[quoteright:247:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Black_Island_9877.jpg]]While taking a walk in the countryside, Tintin comes across a plane with no registration number making an emergency landing. When he approaches the plane, the pilots shoot him and take off. As Tintin is hospitalized, he learns that an unregistered plane has crash landed in Sussex, England, which prompts him to leave the hospital and go on an investigation.

On the way to Sussex, Tintin is framed for assault and robbery by the villainous Puschov, which means that while he investigates the crash landing, he has (for [[RuleOfThree the third and final time]] in the series) to evade Thomson and Thompson, who are intent on arresting him. Tintin eventually discovers that he has stumbled onto a delivery system used by a gang of money counterfeiters with a hidden base of operations on the titular Black Island.

----!!Tropes* BigBadDuumvirate: Puschov and Dr. Müller.* BrandishmentBluff: The exchange is:-->'''Tintin:''' Hands up! (Two Mooks Tintin is standing behind put their hands up.) Put your guns down on the ground. And don't turn around, or I'll shoot... Come on, I said put your guns down!-->(Mook 1 puts a gun on the ground.)-->'''Mook 2:''' I... I...haven't got one.-->(Snowy picks up the gun and walks toward Tintin.)-->'''Tintin:''' Don't try turning round! Make just one move, either of you, and it'll be the last thing you do! (Tintin slips and falls.) Oh!-->(The two Mooks turn around.)-->'''Mook 1:''' Tintin! (The Mooks run toward him.) And he wasn't even armed!* BreakoutVillain: Dr. Müller is just one member of the gang of counterfeiters, though he probably has the most screentime. Despite this he is the only one to return in future stories and is even the BigBad in ''[[Recap/TintinLandOfBlackGold Land of Black Gold]]î''.* ChainedHeat: When Snowy finds the handcuff key while Thomson and Thompson are asleep, Tintin handcuffs them together. They aren't antagonistic to each other, but keep getting hampered by the handcuffs.* CounterfeitCash* FallingIntoTheCockpit: Thomson and Thompson mistakingly order an untrained engineer to fly a plane for them, resulting in them being stuck performing various accidental flying stunts without being able to land, much to their horror.** ...and blundering into an aerial display competition. ''And winning it''.* HauntedCastle: The inhabitants of Kiltoch think the castle on the Black Island is this.* HeelFaceTurn: Ranko the gorilla torwards the end.* HypocriticalHumour: At one point, Snowy remarks how silly it is for the gorilla to be scared of a little dog, only to run away in terror from a spider the next panel.** The old man in the Scottish pub warns Tintin off the Black Island, but when the papers are interviewing him at the end, he makes it sound as though Tintin was faint-hearted and he was the one who encouraged him to go.* InspectorJavert: Thomson and Thompson. You'd really think they'd have caught on by now...* JustPlaneWrong: The airplane Thomson and Thompson's commandeer stays in the air for two days. That's a pretty big fuel tank...** Probably due to {{Rule of Funny}}** There was a [[http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutan_Voyager plane]] that stayed in the air for ''nine'' days... and yes, it was nearly all fuel tank.* KillerGorilla: Ranko.* NiceJobBreakingItHero: When Tintin disguises himself as an old man to lead Thomson and Thompson astray, Snowy chases a cat through the window, knocking Tintin's disguise off.** Later Snowy incites a goat to chase him, knocking over Puschov before he can shoot Tintin. However as he continues running away from the goat it knocks over Tintin, allowing the crooks to escape.* RightHandAttackDog: Puschov has a Right Hand Attack ''Gorilla'' named Ranko.* RakeTake: Happens to Tintin himself, but actually works to his advantage: As he is Müller's chauffeur Ivan with a gun, he steps on a rake, but as he is hit by it, he accidentally fires and shoots Ivan's hat off, scaring him into submission. Then when Ivan realizes that Tintin has been knocked out and approaches him, Tintin wakes up and uses the rake to knock ''him'' out.* RunningGag: Snowy gets drunk a lot in this story.* UsefulNotes/{{Scotland}}* ShoutOut: Ranko the KillerGorilla was inspired by ''Film/KingKong1933'', which ran in theaters around the time Hergé drew this comic book story in theaters. * TechnologyMarchesOn: In the original 1930s version of the story, Tintin is shocked to enter a room and discover the source of the noises he heard is "...a television set!?!" It looks quite HilariousInHindsight to later readers, which is probably why the 1960s reprinting changed his line to "It's only a television set!" (See below.)* TheSixties: An odd example; the story was originally written for ''Le Petit Vingtième'' in the late 1930s but when the English translation was colourised in 1966 it was also ''modernised'' - hence the cars and trains all come from the 60s and why Tintin is not at all surprised to see a TV. The [[Recap/TintinTheBrokenEar two]] [[Recap/TintinKingOttokarsSceptre stories]] surrounding it are clearly still set in the 30s meaning that ''The Black Island'' can come across as jarring to a reader going through the stories in chronological order. It also means that Dr. Müller (originally ANaziByAnyOtherName) can come across as Eastern Bloc agent instead.* ThievingMagpie: There's one involved (but with a plot twist) when the firemen are desperately looking for their garage key.* WoundedGazelleGambit: Puschov does this in order to incriminate Tintin.